Salah Boutros

"Monastery I" Abstract Painting 10" x 14" inch by Salah Boutros

2018

Salah Boutros was born in 1964 in Cairo where he still lives and works. He gained a BA degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo University and participated in his first collective exhibition at the 1994 Youth Salon (Salon El Shabab) in the capital. Boutros has gone on to feature in several galleries in Cairo and Alexandria, and although he has been a relatively underappreciated quantity in the local art scene, his acrylic and oil paintings contain a certain quality that is reminiscent of some of the pioneers of Egypt’s Modernist movement which preceded him. Boutros employs an expressionist and oftentimes, naïve, painting style in which he mainly illustrates landscapes of things like cityscapes, monasteries, fields and more. He has also delved into figurative painting, and has managed to show an adeptness at portraying traditional Egyptian personages and scenes with a delicate sensitivity. Boutros predominantly uses bolder colors which he scarcely mixes with one another or waters down, creating imposing contrasts and vivid scenes. He has since experimented with a more subdued palette of earthy and organic tones which he has employed in his collection of monastic landscapes, the theme in which he has diligently and consistently produced some of his best work.